Severe winter storm hit Britain and France

severe-winter-storm-hit-britain-and-france

A severe winter storm, named Dirk by Berlin's institute for meteorology, has caused major problems in Britain and France. Latest reports mention 4 deaths in Britain and one in France.

UK's Environment Agency issued hundreds of flood warnings across all of England and Wales with a severe flood warning – the highest level, warning of danger to life – in south west England.

According to rail officials, many trees fell during the night, leading to a reduction in services Tuesday morning. The Energy Networks Association said 150 000 homes were without power today, mainly in the south of England.

The Met Office at Boscombe Down, Salisbury Plain, recorded 66.7 mm of rain in the 24 hours (9 am December 23 to 9 am December 24). This is provisionally a new all time daily record in any month for the station – records going back to January 1931. The previous record was 62.3mm on August 16, 1977.

For Christmas Day and Boxing Day, UK's Met Office forecast said: "We are expecting a colder and less windy interlude with overnight frosts and sunny spells and a wintry mix of showers, so there is a chance that some places, especially the higher ground of the west and north, may see a White Christmas. For most of us though Christmas is likely to be green not white."

Another Atlantic depression is expected to bring a further spell of wet and stormy weather to the UK on Friday.

December 24, 2013.

Image credit: NASA Aqua / MODIS – December 24, 2013

The same winter storm brought fierce winds and rain to France's west coast leaving 240 000 homes without power today. Brittany and Normandy were among the regions worst hit by winds reaching speeds of 130 km/h (80 mph) on Monday. Severe flooding and damage to infrastructure was reported.

France's ERDF electricity distribution network company said it had launched emergency efforts to address the damage to the network before the country's Christmas festivities start.

French local authorities demanded the central government to declare the state of emergency in four cities of the northwest.

Featured image: NASA Aqua / MODIS – December 24, 2013

Share:

Commenting rules and guidelines

We value the thoughts and opinions of our readers and welcome healthy discussions on our website. In order to maintain a respectful and positive community, we ask that all commenters follow these rules:

  • Treat others with kindness and respect.
  • Stay on topic and contribute to the conversation in a meaningful way.
  • Do not use abusive or hateful language.
  • Do not spam or promote unrelated products or services.
  • Do not post any personal information or content that is illegal, obscene, or otherwise inappropriate.

We reserve the right to remove any comments that violate these rules. By commenting on our website, you agree to abide by these guidelines. Thank you for helping to create a positive and welcoming environment for all.

5 Comments

  1. Can anyone explain how can such low pressure systems in Winter / cold periods …. I thought that those systems needed warm waters at deep depths (27°C over 50m depths) to be created and with cold sea / grounds, it vanished / weakened (I'm making ref to tropical cyclones.) Thanks for clarifying this to me…

  2. Jet Stream Record speed a fingerprint of mini-ice-age"
    says Piers Corbyn, astrophysicist of WeatherAction.com
    "The record 275mph Jet Stream speed over the North Atlantic on 22nd Dec (below) – reported on TV by Chris Fawkes BBC-MetOffice – accords with our predictions of increasing 'Wild Jet stream' behaviour as the world moves further into the Mini-Ice-Age circulation we predicted years ago. Significantly this record comes during the late Dec series of our 'Top Red ('R4' and 'R5+') Weather periods which we predicted in mid Nov (in Br+Ir 45d forecast). Related dramatic solar eruptions and Auroral displays will reach a crescendo around the turn of the year and recur during January***.
    "Newly errupting active sunspot regions are coming round to be Earth-facing (below) when we predicted and will drive dangerous weather conditions around end Dec and start Jan in USA, Brit+Ire, Europe and the whole world. These events of course are nothing whatsoever to do with the delusion of CO2 driven climate change. Indeed the CO2 warmist protagonists admit they havn't a clue about why the jet stream is so wild whereas it follows totally from our solar-driven theory*.
    "The innuendo 'It's extreme it must be CO2' is a lie. This 'Mini-Ice-Age increase in wild and extreme events will continue for the next 20 years* by which time the CO2 theory and associated carbon tax theft and dodgy and intelectually-strained politicians will be in the dustbin of history"
    Original story from weatheraction.com

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *